Social Intellect

Paper Summary:

This paper examines the thesis that progress is learning through past experience in which people manage to ameliorate their social and intellectual circumstances and how this should be a continuous process in sustaining life in this world. It explores how the three works, "An American Childhood" by Annie Dillard, "On Liberty" by Mill, and "Consilience" by Wilson, can all be used as examples to expose the importance of learning through one's experience. It looks at how these texts are considered to be useful ones for this purpose because of the fact that they help one to understand how progress can or should be attained.

From the Paper:

"In "An American Childhood" by Annie Dillard, the author writes about her experiences in during her childhood. She describes the way that she used to pass her time like an ordinary child. As a child she collected rocks and insects; made sharp pencil drawings; memorized faces for detective work, pitched a baseball, played with a microscope, etc. These were all ordinary things that most children do in their lives. But the difference that Dillard draws up between her childhood and the children is that she had kept on probing, going deeper into the things she took interest in. This is her way manner of expressing that she progressed through these very little interests that children so easily cast aside once they are passed a certain age (Dillard, 1987)."

More papers on Social Intellect:

• Book Review # 117678 : "Thomas Hobbes' Social Contract Theory"
• Essay # 9150 : "On Being an Educated Person"
• Comparison Essay # 118486 : "Kant and Rousseau on Human Potential"

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